A new patient care tower will be built at Penticton Regional Hospital, in British Columbia, Canada, following the approval by the provincial government of a business plan submitted by Interior Health.

The Penticton Regional Hospital Patient Care Tower will include approximately 26,700 square metres (287,500 square feet) of new health care facilities. This project will significantly improve access to services, and improve patient care through the consolidation of programs currently distributed throughout the hospital.

A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) will now be prepared seeking qualified companies to design, build, finance and maintain the new tower. The RFQ is expected to be released later this summer. Following evaluation of responses to the RFQ, up to three companies will be shortlisted and invited to submit responses to a Request for Proposals. A successful proponent will be selected from that process. The entire procurement process will take approximately 18 months to complete.

 The Penticton Regional Hospital Project will be constructed in two phases.

• Phase one will include the construction of a new patient care tower. The tower will have a new walk-in care centre, surgical services centre, 84 medical/surgical inpatient beds in single patient rooms, a new medical device reprocessing unit, and space for the UBC Faculty of Medicine Program.
• Phase two will involve the renovation of vacated areas in the current hospital to allow the expansion of the emergency department into a space almost four times the size of the current department, as well as renovations to existing support areas of pharmacy, laundry and materiel (supplies and equipment) stores. The construction of the new tower and renovations to the existing building will take about three and a half years.

The total budget for the project is CAD$325 million. It will be funded jointly by the provincial government, with CAD$122 million provided by the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional Hospital District and CAD$20 million provided by the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

The patient care tower will be efficiently-designed and user-friendly. It will support staff and physician recruitment by offering the opportunity for medical professionals to work in a newly-designed clinical environment that will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified.